The impact of the learning environment sudden shifts on students’ performance in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic
Open accessAbstract
This study aims to determine the effect of sudden changes in learning environments on students’ performance, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. We present an analysis of the kinesiology program, focusing on the learning modality changes through the years, and its impact on students’ performance. We analyzed three periods over five years. During the Pre-pandemic period (2018-2019), classes had been taught in-person, during the pandemic (2020-2021) classes had been taught online, and during end of lockdown (2022) classes had return to in-person modality. In addition, we also examined the academic performance outcomes by gender during the three periods. We found that the academic performance significantly increased in all cohort of career, increasing the average grade from 4.7 ± 0.08 (2018 to 2019, in-person) to 5.15 ± 0.07 during the pandemic period, from 2020 to 2021, when online modality was utilized. Furthermore, when returning to in-person classes in 2022, the academic performance reduced significantly to 4.6 ± 0.17. We also found that gender did not have an influence on academic performance in any of the learning environments presented. However, during clinical internships, we found that gender had a significantly effect on academic performance. Based on these results, we conclude that the sudden shift from in-person learning to online learning modality helped improved the learning performance of student, reflecting those results on better students’ performance scores that could be associated with the enhanced efficient use of time. Este estudio tiene como objetivo determinar el efecto de los cambios repentinos en los entornos de aprendizaje sobre el rendimiento de los estudiantes, en el contexto del confinamiento por la pandemia del COVID-19. Presentamos un análisis del programa de la carrera de kinesiología, enfocándonos en los cambios de modalidad de aprendizaje a través de los años, y su impacto en el rendimiento de los estudiantes. Se analizaron tres períodos a lo largo de cinco años. Durante el periodo Pre-pandemia (2018-2019) las clases se habían impartido de forma presencial, durante la pandemia (2020-2021) las clases se habían impartido online y durante el fin del confinamiento (2022) las clases habían vuelto a la modalidad presencial. Además, también examinamos los resultados del rendimiento académico por género durante los tres períodos. Se encontró que el rendimiento académico aumentó significativamente en toda la cohorte de la carrera, aumentando la calificación promedio de 4.74 ± 0.08 (2018 a 2019, presencial) a 5.15 ± 0.07 durante el período de pandemia, de 2020 a 2021, cuando la modalidad en línea fue utilizada. Además, al regresar a las clases presenciales en 2022, el rendimiento académico se redujo significativamente a 4,6 ± 0,17. También encontramos que el género no influyó en el rendimiento académico en ninguno de los entornos de aprendizaje presentados. Sin embargo, durante las pasantías clínicas, encontramos que el género tuvo un efecto significativo en el rendimiento académico. Con base en estos resultados, concluimos que el cambio repentino de la modalidad de aprendizaje en persona a la modalidad de aprendizaje en línea ayudó a mejorar el rendimiento de aprendizaje de los estudiantes, lo que refleja esos resultados en mejores puntajes de rendimiento de los estudiantes que podrían estar asociados con un mayor uso eficiente del tiempo.
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One included study found that when students started learning online, their grades improved on average from 4.7/10 to 5.15/10 and dropped to 4.6/10 when they returned to face-to-face learning.
“one of the studies found that when students started learning online, their grades improved on average from 4.7/10 to 5.15/10 and dropped to 4.6/10 when they went back to face-to-face learning [3]”
From Impact of online learning on student's performance and engagement: a systematic review (2024) · cites this paper as [3]
The Abstract (Results) reports the stated averages: 4.7 before online learning, 5.15 during online learning, and 4.6 after the return to in-person classes. But Methodology (Data collection procedures) specifies a grading scale of 1.0 to 7.0, not scores out of 10. (LLM, conf=0.94)
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- Authors
- Pérez, M. A., Tiemann, P., & Urrejola-Contreras, G. P.
- Affiliations
- Viña del Mar University (CL)
- Venue
- Educación Médica
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2023-05
- Volume
- 24
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 100801
- ISSN
- 1575-1813 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC9922582
- OpenAlex
- W4320497803
- Cited by
- 10
- References
- 28
- Citations by year
- 2026: 4 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3
- FWCI
- 7.39
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Educación Médica (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Education › Education during COVID-19 pandemic
- Social Sciences › Education › Online Learning Methods and Innovations
- Social Sciences › Education › Educational Outcomes and Influences
- Keywords
- COVID-19 pandemic, learning environment, online learning, in-person learning, academic performance, kinesiology students, clinical internship, gender differences, return to in-person classes
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